Democrats hope to use the momentum they say they gained from the payroll fight by forcing Republicans to vote repeatedly this election year on jobs programs financed by tax boosts on the rich.

The parties’ legislative strategies underscore the political conclusions each drew from the payroll battle. That fight finally ended Friday when Congress used bipartisan votes to send President Barack Obama a $143 billion package extending the 2 percentage point payroll tax cut, preserving extra jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and preventing slashes in Medicare reimbursements to doctors.

Until abruptly dropping their demand that the payroll tax cut be financed with spending cuts, outmaneuvered Republicans had let Democrats cast them as opposing a middle-class tax break for 160 million workers. That was a vulnerable position just months ahead of presidential and congressional elections, so the GOP is trying to refocus voters on what they say are Obama’s failed efforts to fully revive the economy.

“We need to change course and focus on pro-growth economic policies that help small businesses create jobs,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Friday after House passage of the payroll tax measure.

WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. — The only Americans lost in last month’s Italian cruise ship disaster were remembered Saturday as a faithful couple and loving grandparents who spent their final moments as they had much of their lives: together.

A memorial Mass for Jerry and Barb Heil drew hundreds of people to the couple’s longtime Minnesota church in White Bear Lake, a suburb of St. Paul. The Heils are among 15 people still listed as missing from the Costa Concordia, which rammed a reef near a Tuscan island and capsized Jan. 13.

“After a tragedy such as this, it’s normal for us to feel a little empty,” their son, Nathan Heil, said during a service that also featured readings and prayers by several of the Heils’ grandchildren. “But things will get better with time, mom and dad would always say, and usually they were right.”

Friends and family recalled the couple’s strong bond to each other, their four children and 14 grandchildren, and their deep and unwavering commitment to their Catholic faith. Their son also told mourners that he was glad his parents weren’t suffering and were together at the end of their lives.

Thirty-two people are believed to have perished in the cruise ship accident, including the Heils and 13 other people who have not been found. Italian authorities stopped searching the ship at the end of January due to dangerous conditions, a decision that Heil family members said was disappointing but which they accepted.

Italian prosecutors are investigating the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, for possible criminal charges, including allegedly abandoning his ship before all passengers and crew were evacuated.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A fast-moving fire swept through a multifamily home early Saturday, killing four people, all of whom appeared to be children or teenagers, fire officials said.

Firefighters were on the scene quickly and tried to reach people sleeping inside, but the blaze spread through the two-story wood-framed building with such speed they were unable to get to people trapped on the upper floor.

“The firefighters were actually enveloped in flames for a brief time,” Rochester Fire Chief John Caufield told the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. “We withdrew them. There was just no possible way for them to make a search or any further entry in there without really sacrificing their own lives.”

Four survivors were taken to a hospital, he said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, but the circumstances appeared unusual.

NEW DELHI — Police say a school bus plunged into a river and at least seven people were killed in the west-coast Indian resort state of Goa.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of six children and one adult from the Kalvi River, about 18 miles from Goa’s capital of Panaji.

The bus went into the river Saturday morning after the driver reportedly lost control. Police director general Kishan Kumar says the driver and conductor both jumped from the vehicle as it was falling and were unharmed.

Goa’s government offered $4,000 in compensation to victims’ families, and canceled Goa’s annual three-day carnival parades on Sunday in Panaji and other cities.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday brought 22 Catholic churchmen into the elite club of cardinals who will elect his successor, cementing the Italian majority in a future conclave but also giving New York’s garrulous archbishop a position of prominence.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan emerged as something of the star of the consistory, delivering a highly praised speech on spreading the faith and mentioned in some Italian media as an improbable “papabile,” or having the qualities of a future pope.

Traditionally Americans are ruled out as papal contenders, with the argument that the world doesn’t need a superpower pope. But Dolan’s joyful demeanor seemed to have struck a chord in a Vatican that has been anything but joyful over a rash of news reports about political infighting and financial mismanagement.

“He certainly is going to be given many responsibilities as a cardinal,” said the other American who got a red hat Saturday, Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, the outgoing archbishop of Baltimore. Asked if he thought Dolan had the stuff to be pope, O’Brien deadpanned: “His mother thinks so.”

From Associated Press reports

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